Communications circuitry for use in multi-processor systems dedicated to monitoring or supervising regions is known. One example is disclosed in Tice et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,916,432 entitled Smoke and Fire Detection System Communication. Another is disclosed in Tice U.S. Pat. No. 5,525,962 entitled Communication System and Method. Both of the noted patents are assigned to the assignee hereof and are hereby incorporated herein by reference.
Another system is disclosed in copending application Ser. No. 08/906,277, filed Aug. 5, 1997 and entitled Multi-Processor Communication System. This application is also assigned to the assignee hereof and is also incorporated by reference.
While known systems are useful and have been effective, it would be desirable to be able to improve the level of reliability of transmission of information in a given system. Further, it would be desirable to be able to provide apparatus and methods of retransmission essentially automatically. Such an environment would be useful in supervision or alarm systems as well as in general purpose local area networks.